Interesting observation -- I'm a native English speaker now living in Latin America and working hard to improve my Spanish. I can read non-fiction and technical Spanish well enough, these days, but literary Spanish (with its much wider range of vocabulary and more artistic constructions) often still defeats me. Being intimately familiar with Lord of the Rings in English, I've read through a fair bit of the standard Spanish translation now; that's been very helpful, since I can usually understand passages in Spanish that I might not otherwise understand simply by virtue of knowing the story and being familiar with the English version. I have not, however, attempted to read The Silmarillion or the Children of Hurin in Spanish yet!
A strangely uninformed (and uninformative) review
on
The Children of Hurin
·
· Score: 1
I am somewhat mystified how a reviewer in this day and age can pick up The Children of Húrin and be "hoping for something along the lines of 'The Hobbit' or 'The Lord of the Rings'". I mean, a number of variants/fragments this same tale have been published beginning in 1977, and none of them bear any resemblance to the style of either The Hobbit or LOTR, while its latest incarnation as The Children of Húrin explicitly presents itself as yet-another-reconstruction drawn from JRRT's various (mostly previously published) draftings and re-draftings. Given these known facts, how could one possibly expect the style of The Children of Húrin to be anything other than what it is? (That is, a sort of imitation of 19th-centuryish English interpretations/translations of non-Modern-English classic mythological and legendary texts.)
And so, with that in mind, how can one reasonably identify (if I may paraphrase slightly here) "unfamiliar proper names" as "problems that plague the book"? This is a pseudo-legendary text treating the doings of figures imagined to live in a vastly different time and place, equipped with their own languages and cultures that are expressly different to those of the modern Real World in which we readers live. Are we to complain that the protagonists are not called "Larry" or "Jennifer", and that they do not live in "Elftown, USA"? We may as well complain of unfamiliar names and places in The Odyssey or the Mahabharata! (The emphasis on genealogies and family connections in common in genuine myth and legend -- for example, it will be familiar to those who have read medieval Scandinavia sagas, or the Kalevala... or the Old Testament -- and so entirely appropriate to the style of work JRRT aspired to produce.) Beside, how hard is it to pronounce, say, "Dorthonion" anyway? Despite these issues seen to present difficulties for "a modern audience", actual discussion of the story itself is compressed into less than two paragraphs that offer us little more literary insight than that its protagonist possesses flaws.
Confusingly, this review seems to assume less knowledge about Tolkien's works that would be available simply by skimming the marketing blurbs on the published The Children of Húrin book itself, let alone the now more than 30 years of publishing history associated with alternative variants of the tale. As a consequence, it has little more to tell us except that the reviewer did not realize it was not written in the style of The Hobbit or LOTR, that they are bewildered by unfamiliar names presented in contexts different from those of modern popular fiction, and that they rated it "7 out of 10" despite having apparently found relatively little in the book that appeals to them. I suppose this review itself shows us that there are such readers out there -- perhaps they should be advised in advance that, if they haven't already come across, say, The Silmarillion (let alone the sprawling HoME anthology), they won't find the writing much like that of The Hobbit! Meanwhile, this review tells us little about the story itself or how it was constructed, and only hints vaguely at whether or not the story is effective (once readers bothered by such things get past the unfamiliar names and style). Not surprisingly at this point, there is no discussion of whether this version improves on or suffers in comparison with the tale's previously published variants (or even how it is related to them). In the end, given the existence of the numerous rather more insightful reviews (both positive and negative) published closer to publication date of the book itself, I am left wondering what this review of The Children of Húrin is for.
Skipping past all ranting about sampling, audiophiles, cruddy headphones, etc.....
I wouldn't say I'd pay more for CD-quality downloads -- I'd expect to pay less for a CD-quality download than for a CD. After all, I'm not paying for packaging, shipping, yadda, yadda. And these days, buying FLACs of new studio albums from some online vendors, I do pay less for CD-quality downloads, while buying a whole album of AACs from iTunes still usually costs me more than the CD (if I shop around).
Sure, on cruddy iPod headphones in a noisy environment, I can barely hear the difference between AACs or MP3s of reasonable bit rates. But when I play the same files through my modestly decent home stereo, yeah, I can start to hear differences, especially with some types of music. So why the heck am I going to pay more for an relatively low bit rate AAC than I do for a physical CD (which is its own backup, after all)? Of course, I'm not going to.
So: I'll happily pay less for CD-quality downloads than for physical CDs. That's my price point;)
Builds adaptive, cooperative, human interface skills in real time! (And is a great way to meet chicks... or guys... or both... whatever). It is not possible to look like a misanthropic geek if one has successfully mastered the basics of successfully aligning your body movements to Latin rhythms. (The trick, of course, is zenning that rhythm thing -- but thus the lessons if you need an extra boost there.)
If that fails, join a rock band. If you can learn to work with "artists", you can then work with _anyone_ (and having unkempt hair can be an asset under the correct circumstances). However, contrary to popular belief, this is probably not a good way to meet members of the opposite sex, or anyone else you might wish to form a non-professional relationship with;)
At the very least, throw away all those computer games so that you're forced to find something else to do with your apparently (possibly?) copious free time:)
Well, adding Natalie Portman to "Jedi" can hardly make it worse than the plague of Care Bears that shredded all its cred from the start. But the inclusion of the Dread JJB in ANH would spoil a still cool film! As if making that Greebo dude shoot first at Han Solo wasn't bad enough!
I'm relieved to see I'm not alone in this opinion. Sometime in my early teens, R.A. Salvatore was one of a handful of authors who made me realize that I didn't like some books solely because the subject matter wasn't interesting to me -- some books just actually sucked:) Being a big role-playing gamer and sci-fi reader back then, I gamely waded
through piles of TSR-produced D&D tie-in novels. Some of these I will still maintain weren't so bad, though Salvatore's ham-fisted series wore me down after a couple of books. I just couldn't take it any more. At least "The Eye of Argon" is entertaining:)
Thus, I have continually been surprised (and mildly irked) that the man has continued turning out reams of what I airly assume to be graceless fantasy novels for the last decade or so, and even has a loyal and devoted fan base. The horror, the horror.... I've never had the courage to see whether he'd gotten better, though the review above suggests that now is not the time to change my ways;)
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting observation -- I'm a native English speaker now living in Latin America and working hard to improve my Spanish. I can read non-fiction and technical Spanish well enough, these days, but literary Spanish (with its much wider range of vocabulary and more artistic constructions) often still defeats me. Being intimately familiar with Lord of the Rings in English, I've read through a fair bit of the standard Spanish translation now; that's been very helpful, since I can usually understand passages in Spanish that I might not otherwise understand simply by virtue of knowing the story and being familiar with the English version. I have not, however, attempted to read The Silmarillion or the Children of Hurin in Spanish yet!
I am somewhat mystified how a reviewer in this day and age can pick up The Children of Húrin and be "hoping for something along the lines of 'The Hobbit' or 'The Lord of the Rings'". I mean, a number of variants/fragments this same tale have been published beginning in 1977, and none of them bear any resemblance to the style of either The Hobbit or LOTR, while its latest incarnation as The Children of Húrin explicitly presents itself as yet-another-reconstruction drawn from JRRT's various (mostly previously published) draftings and re-draftings. Given these known facts, how could one possibly expect the style of The Children of Húrin to be anything other than what it is? (That is, a sort of imitation of 19th-centuryish English interpretations/translations of non-Modern-English classic mythological and legendary texts.)
And so, with that in mind, how can one reasonably identify (if I may paraphrase slightly here) "unfamiliar proper names" as "problems that plague the book"? This is a pseudo-legendary text treating the doings of figures imagined to live in a vastly different time and place, equipped with their own languages and cultures that are expressly different to those of the modern Real World in which we readers live. Are we to complain that the protagonists are not called "Larry" or "Jennifer", and that they do not live in "Elftown, USA"? We may as well complain of unfamiliar names and places in The Odyssey or the Mahabharata! (The emphasis on genealogies and family connections in common in genuine myth and legend -- for example, it will be familiar to those who have read medieval Scandinavia sagas, or the Kalevala ... or the Old Testament -- and so entirely appropriate to the style of work JRRT aspired to produce.) Beside, how hard is it to pronounce, say, "Dorthonion" anyway? Despite these issues seen to present difficulties for "a modern audience", actual discussion of the story itself is compressed into less than two paragraphs that offer us little more literary insight than that its protagonist possesses flaws.
Confusingly, this review seems to assume less knowledge about Tolkien's works that would be available simply by skimming the marketing blurbs on the published The Children of Húrin book itself, let alone the now more than 30 years of publishing history associated with alternative variants of the tale. As a consequence, it has little more to tell us except that the reviewer did not realize it was not written in the style of The Hobbit or LOTR, that they are bewildered by unfamiliar names presented in contexts different from those of modern popular fiction, and that they rated it "7 out of 10" despite having apparently found relatively little in the book that appeals to them. I suppose this review itself shows us that there are such readers out there -- perhaps they should be advised in advance that, if they haven't already come across, say, The Silmarillion (let alone the sprawling HoME anthology), they won't find the writing much like that of The Hobbit! Meanwhile, this review tells us little about the story itself or how it was constructed, and only hints vaguely at whether or not the story is effective (once readers bothered by such things get past the unfamiliar names and style). Not surprisingly at this point, there is no discussion of whether this version improves on or suffers in comparison with the tale's previously published variants (or even how it is related to them). In the end, given the existence of the numerous rather more insightful reviews (both positive and negative) published closer to publication date of the book itself, I am left wondering what this review of The Children of Húrin is for.
Skipping past all ranting about sampling, audiophiles, cruddy headphones, etc. ....
I wouldn't say I'd pay more for CD-quality downloads -- I'd expect to pay less for a CD-quality download than for a CD. After all, I'm not paying for packaging, shipping, yadda, yadda. And these days, buying FLACs of new studio albums from some online vendors, I do pay less for CD-quality downloads, while buying a whole album of AACs from iTunes still usually costs me more than the CD (if I shop around).
Sure, on cruddy iPod headphones in a noisy environment, I can barely hear the difference between AACs or MP3s of reasonable bit rates. But when I play the same files through my modestly decent home stereo, yeah, I can start to hear differences, especially with some types of music. So why the heck am I going to pay more for an relatively low bit rate AAC than I do for a physical CD (which is its own backup, after all)? Of course, I'm not going to.
So: I'll happily pay less for CD-quality downloads than for physical CDs. That's my price point ;)
"This ultra-intense laser blast creates true 'black metal' from copper, gold or zinc ...."
Death to false black metal!
:)
Builds adaptive, cooperative, human interface skills in real time! (And is a great way to meet chicks ... or guys ... or both ... whatever). It is not possible to look like a misanthropic geek if one has successfully mastered the basics of successfully aligning your body movements to Latin rhythms. (The trick, of course, is zenning that rhythm thing -- but thus the lessons if you need an extra boost there.)
;)
:)
If that fails, join a rock band. If you can learn to work with "artists", you can then work with _anyone_ (and having unkempt hair can be an asset under the correct circumstances). However, contrary to popular belief, this is probably not a good way to meet members of the opposite sex, or anyone else you might wish to form a non-professional relationship with
At the very least, throw away all those computer games so that you're forced to find something else to do with your apparently (possibly?) copious free time
Cheers,
Carl
Well, adding Natalie Portman to "Jedi" can hardly make it worse than the plague of Care Bears that shredded all its cred from the start. But the inclusion of the Dread JJB in ANH would spoil a still cool film! As if making that Greebo dude shoot first at Han Solo wasn't bad enough!
I'm relieved to see I'm not alone in this opinion. Sometime in my early teens, R.A. Salvatore was one of a handful of authors who made me realize that I didn't like some books solely because the subject matter wasn't interesting to me -- some books just actually sucked :) Being a big role-playing gamer and sci-fi reader back then, I gamely waded
through piles of TSR-produced D&D tie-in novels. Some of these I will still maintain weren't so bad, though Salvatore's ham-fisted series wore me down after a couple of books. I just couldn't take it any more. At least "The Eye of Argon" is entertaining :)
Thus, I have continually been surprised (and mildly irked) that the man has continued turning out reams of what I airly assume to be graceless fantasy novels for the last decade or so, and even has a loyal and devoted fan base. The horror, the horror .... I've never had the courage to see whether he'd gotten better, though the review above suggests that now is not the time to change my ways ;)